Index Archive

23 September 2018

In Depth Revealed Rafale Plane Weapons No Secrets to Hide The Dassault Rafale literally means "gust of wind", and "burst of fire" is a French twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation.
Equipped with a wide range of weapons, the Rafale is intended to perform air supremacy, interdiction, aerial reconnaissance, ground support, in-depth strike, anti-ship strike and nuclear deterrence missions. The Rafale is referred to as an "omnirole" aircraft by Dassault.

The Rafale is manufactured almost entirely in France. Different elements are produced in numerous factories across the country, and final assembly takes place near Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport. For example, the flight control surfaces are fabricated in Haute-Savoie, the wings and avionics in Gironde, the centre fuselage in Val-d'Oise, and the engines in Essonne. Roughly 50 percent of the Rafale is produced by Dassault and the other half divided between two major partners, Thales and Safran, who rely on a network of 500 subcontractors. Altogether, the programme employs 7,000 workers.

To design the Rafale, in 1981 Dassault developed a revolutionary computer software suite called Katya. Using Katya all engineers can work together and build , configure and test everything before the real production starts.

With the help of Katya Plane is virtually designed on the nearest 10th of a millimeter
Katya also anticipates each stage of manufacturing

Now Katya is sold world wide by Dassault Systems and is used to manufacture civil aircraft and automobiles everywhere. Everything is designed and simulated by Katya. The Rafale secret lies in its 100% virtual design. Katya software not only allows engineers to design a plane down to the minutest detail it is also used for the upstream manufacturing in short for everything. Everything is designed and simulated by Katya.

Everything is assembled in Dassault plant in Merignac near Bordeaux.
The computer designed parts made in a dozen other factories in France fit together perfectly.
Each plane represents two years of labor. A total of 7000 people work in France on Rafale.

2016 = 11 planes are fully manufactured and leave the Merignac plant.

1987 – Rafale program was launched officially. The French government decided to invest in the plane for next 40 years.In 2004 the French Navys first Rafales entered service and in 2006 those of the French Air Force.

Rafale is a multi role fighter. There are planes for aerial superiority, planes for recognizance, planes for bombing rates, planes for strategic bombing carrying missiles on nuclear arms.
Eight type of planes replaced by just one that is Rafale.

The Rafale is an all rounder plane and in future slowly Rafale will replace all the other fighter planes in French military

Empty the Rafale weighs 11 tons, but it can carry up to 16 tons of bombs and missiles of fuel, one and a half time its own weight.

Rafale is a machine of extraordinary complexity 25 kilometers of wiring,30,000 high precision parts and countless electronic circuits.

Rafale can fly up to 20,000 meters of altitude. Its maximum speed is 2,130 kilometers per hour almost twice the speed of sound.

To enable the Rafale to perform in the air supremacy role, it includes several passive sensor systems. The front-sector electro-optical system or Optronique Secteur Frontal (OSF), developed by Thales, is completely integrated within the aircraft and can operate both in the visible and infrared wavelengths.The OSF enables the deployment of infrared missiles such as the MICA at beyond visual range distances; it can also be used for detecting and identifying airborne targets, as well as those on the ground and at sea.Dassault describes the OSF as being immune to jamming and capable of providing covert long-range surveillance. In 2012, an improved version of the OSF was deployed operationally.

The Rafale's glass cockpit was designed around the principle of data fusion – a central computer intelligently selects and prioritises information to display to pilots for simpler command and control.

The primary flight controls are arranged in a hands-on-throttle-and-stick (HOTAS)-compatible configuration, with a right-handed side-stick controller and a left-handed throttle.
The seat is inclined rearwards at an angle of 29° to improve g-force tolerance during manoeuvring and to provide a less restricted external pilot view.An intelligent flight suit worn by the pilot is automatically controlled by the aircraft to counteract in response to calculated g-forces.

Among the features of the highly digitised cockpit is an integrated direct voice input (DVI) system, allowing a range of aircraft functions to be controlled by spoken voice commands, simplifying the pilot's access to many of the controls. Developed by Crouzet, the DVI is capable of managing radio communications and countermeasures systems, the selection of armaments and radar modes, and controlling navigational functions.For safety reasons, DVI is deliberately not employed for safety-critical elements of the aircraft's operation, such as the final release of armaments.

The cockpit is fully compatible with night vision goggles (NVG)

In the area of life-support, the Rafale is fitted with a Martin-Baker Mark 16F "zero-zero” ejection seat, capable of operation at zero speed and zero altitude. An on-board oxygen generating system, developed by Air Liquide, eliminates the need to carry bulky oxygen canisters.

The Rafale's flight computer has been programmed to counteract pilot disorientation and to employ automatic recovery of the aircraft during negative flight conditions. The auto-pilot and autothrottle controls are also integrated, and are activated by switches located on the primary flight controls.

There are 3 main versions of Rafale

a- The Rafale B – a two seater for the French Air Force with pilot navigator

b-The Rafale C – an identical model but a single seat fighter

C – Rafale M – For French Naval Aviation ready for use on aircraft carriers. The Rafale M differes from other,the other two versions by its much heavier landing gear,which includes a tail hook and enables it to land and halt in under 400 meters something which other competing aircraft's can not do that.

One of the main challenge of the air to air mission is to detect the enemy before enemy detects you. For this Rafale is equipped with three revolutionary technologies.

Firstly a multi directional radar which is unique it is located in the nose.
Its composed of hundreds of small transit receive modules, the exact number of which is top secret. It can detect up to 40 targets at the same time in a range of over 100 kilometers.
These electronic systems for which only the French and the Americans have the technology provide a radar that can not only sweep from one horizontal zone to another in an instant but also sweep above and below as well this happens because small micro sensors which are installed in nose get activated.

But when the radar is used the plane becomes detectable When in Combat, one needs stealth, For this Dassault positioned an undetectable so called passive sensor just in front of the cockpit, unlike on previous models.

Among the various radar sensors on the plane one of them is very special
the little balls just in front of the cockpit near the nose. It is a kind of optical camera which is extremely precise and allows you to see more clearly targets detected by the radar or by other planes. Its like Telescope with a zoom

the third feature specially dedicated to air to surface missions is the recognizance pod.
Its a massive digital camera fitted to the undercarriage, It weights just over a ton.
It can take photos at any speed with the precision of 10 centimeters.
Today it is used in all combat theaters of operations.

The Rafale core avionics systems employ an integrated modular avionics (IMA), called MDPU (modular data processing unit). This architecture hosts all the main aircraft functions such as the flight management system, data fusion, fire control, and the man-machine interface.
The total value of the radar, electronic communications and self-protection equipment is about 30 percent of the cost of the entire aircraft.

The Rafale features an integrated defensive-aids system named SPECTRA, which protects the aircraft against airborne and ground threats, developed as a joint venture between Thales and MBDA. Various methods of detection, jamming, and decoying have been incorporated, and the system has been designed to be highly re-programmable for addressing new threats and incorporating additional sub-systems in the future.

The Rafale's ground attack capability is heavily reliant upon sensory targeting pods, such as Thales Optronics's Reco New Generation/Areos reconnaissance pod and Damocles electro-optical/laser designation pod.Together, these systems provide targeting information, enable tactical reconnaissance missions, and are integrated with the Rafale's IMA architecture to provide analysed data feeds to friendly units and ground stations, as well as to the pilot.Damocles provides targeting information to the various armaments carried by the Rafale and is directly integrated with the Rafale's VHF/UHF secure radio to communicate target information with other aircraft. It also performs other key functions such as aerial optical surveillance and is integrated with the navigation system as a FLIR.

A new Thales targeting pod, the Talios, was officially unveiled at the 2014 Farnborough Air Show and is expected to be integrated on the Rafale Thales' Areos reconnaissance pod is an all-weather, night-and-day-capable reconnaissance system employed on the Rafale, and provides a significantly improved reconnaissance capability over preceding platforms.Areos has been designed to perform reconnaissance under various mission profiles and condition, using multiple day/night sensors and its own independent communications datalinks.

Another key onboard technology Spectra, an integrative defensive aid system.
It is composed of this large module at the rear of plane, which is connected to sensors placed al around the fuselage.

Spectra can jam enemy radars and give a missile approach warning
Spectra creates a kind of protective shield around the plane It can send decoy signals, jam and counter jam radar signals so that enemy sensors are incapable of detecting the Rafale Plane.

If in spite of jamming an enemy missile gets close to Rafale, Spectra can send out a decoy, an electromagnetic pulse from the rear of the plane which deroots enemy missiles.

Rafale Below are the names of most important seven weapons which Rafale Carries with it

The Mika air to air missile it can be fired 50 kilometers from its target and self correct its trajectory. The MICA air-to-air “Beyond Visual Range” (BVR) interception, combat and self-defense missiles, in their IR (heat-seeking) and EM (active radar homing) versions. The MICA can be used within visual range (WVR) and beyond visual range (BVR).

The Meteor air to air missile it will offer multi shot capability from a distance of 100 kilometers

The SCALP long-range stand-off missile
twin-engine Rafale could be armed with Storm Shadow missiles that can fly for more than 250 miles. This means Rafale could strike without having to fly near target and avoid anti-aircraft defenses.
Laser of GPS guided bombs these are used against terrorist, raid on terrorist
The Rafale can carry up to six.
For laser guided bombs the Rafale is fitted with laser pod which sets targets in his sights 10 kilometers away and this huge storm shadow. It is an air launched long range fire and forget cruise missile. The pilot simply fires the missile and it goes straight to the target and hits it.

The Rafale also carries a Giat 30 revolver cannon on its undercarriage.
It has 30 millimeter shells fired at 2500 rounds per minute with a muzzle velocity of 1055 meters per second. Its very effective and it is used both in air to air combat and air to surface operations.

Naval Rafale – The AM39 EXOCET anti-ship missile Exo Set – a huge missile fitted with its own rocket motor. Its explosive charge can sink a ship from over 70 kilometers away.

The Rafale can carry all above weapons at the same time.

It can switch from an aerial defense mission to an air to surface mission at the push of a button and this is due to the extremely flexible armament system.

Whatever may be the requirement or mission Rafale can carry out that mission it s an all rounder multi role fighter plane.

Rafale can carry very long range missions.

In flight Refueling – with a small probe located just in front of the cockpit, the pilot can link up with a tank or aircraft and fill up the Rafales fuel tanks.

Rafale can hold up to 5 and half tons of fuel but it can carry over 7 tons of back up fuel in its 2000 liter external tanks or in 1200 liter tanks so as to attain supersonic speeds.

It can consume over 5 tons of fuel in just 10 minutes.

Nuclear Deterrents – The Rafale can carry nuclear weapons

Rafales engines can be changed in just one hour.

With its 10-tonne empty weight, the Rafale is fitted with 14 hard points (13 on the Rafale M). Five of them are capable of drop tanks and heavy ordnance. Total external load capacity is more than nine tonnes (20,000 lbs.).
“Buddy-buddy” refuelling missions can be carried out in portions of the airspace out of reach of dedicated and vulnerable tanker aircraft.
With its outstanding load-carrying capability and its advanced mission system, the Rafale can carry out both air-to-ground strikes, as well as air-to-air attacks and interceptions during the same sortie.
It is capable of performing several actions at the same time, such as firing air-to-air missiles during a very low altitude penetration phase: a clear demonstration of the true “Omnirole” capability and outstanding survivability of the Rafale.